Am I Becoming a Minimalist?

I just want to get rid of stuff. I spoke here about how much I admired Adam Baker at Man vs Debt and his family for scaling down to only what they could fit into backpacks. See here for his list of possessions made before they left the country.

Maybe it’s because right now the wanderlust is overwhelming. Bob and I are off to Aruba in a month, then heading to San Diego in November for the Realtor convention (not me… I’ll be at the beach, sightseeing and spending time with my friend Karen).

I just love the idea of picking up and moving somewhere far away…and eventually that is our plan. We love the west coast and hope to live there some day, even if just for a few years. But the idea of lugging all of our stuff with us… that’s just not a good time.

I was reading this article on Zen Habits.net this morning and as I looked at the beautiful picture he posted, I felt immediately calm. The only real color in the image comes from the flowers, and the lamp is very simple. I do like to have lots of photographs around me though, so I don’t know how far I could really take the vibe in my own life.

In the article, Leo talks about how the minimalist lifestyle is about more than aesthetics, it’s about living with less… of everything. Less words (when writing), less goals, less food. It’s an interesting perspective, and what my own blog is kind of about, but for now I’m focusing on the aesthetic aspect, and the calmness felt as a result of not being surrounded by so many “things”.

So as I look around at all the “things we have collected,” I’m actually getting excited by the idea of getting rid of it. This weekend, we plan to spend some time in the basement going through the boxes we moved into this house with, that sit there, of use to nobody. We’ll see what we can donate, sell or recycle… and rest will be thrown away. Our dog trainer, Erika, is coming over tonight… we will give her all the extra animal supplies and toys we have collected that our animals don’t use to bring with her to the shelter where she works.

So it will be interesting to see where we are after we’ve actually gone through each room and scaled down. Maybe we will be SO scaled down that it will be actually possible to just pick up and move far, far away! Some day…